Niagara Falls- Friday, March 8, 2024

      Earlier this year, Julie became an officer in her school's union, and was able to attend a NYSUT conference in Niagara Falls today.  Scott and Abby tagged along to stay in the hotel room.   We started today with a regular school day and day care day.  Scott's day was a little unusual because it was a "Superintendent's Day" and he actually got out of school early.  He picked up Julie at 2:30, we packed the suitcase, picked up Abby and were off to Niagara Falls.

     We checked in at the hotel and there was a little bit of a line, but the line got much longer to check in as it got later in the afternoon and more teachers arrived.  After checking in and dropping our stuff off in the room, we went across the street to the Niagara Falls Convention Center and Julie checked in at the conference.  We got a little supper at a cafe in the first floor of the hotel.  The slice of pizza from there was a little lame and expensive, but convenient, at least.  Julie was excited to have a Starbucks right in our hotel lobby and we stopped there.  We parted ways as Julie met up with a colleague from her district.  They were going to the dinner and social events at the conference.  

     Scott and Abby went swimming.  The pool here is pretty great.  The water was warmer than bath water, so that was nice, but what really made the pool amazing was the large fish tanks nearby.  Abby was excited to stop and look at them and spotted a "Dory" fish almost immediately.  The pool area is also decorated with fish and sharks on the wall, and the whole place had a very comfortable feel.  Abby and Dad were in the pool for about an hour.  She was getting tired and some bigger boys were starting to splash, so we went to the room to dry off.

     Of course, as soon even before we were in the room, Abby was saying that she was hungry, and even though Mommy had packed a big bag of things to do, the one thing that she didn't pack was food.  Abby said she wanted chicken nuggets.  We asked at the front desk, but McDonalds and Burger King both were too far away to walk.  We threw Scott's coat over Abby to keep her warm and went across the street into the Seneca Niagara Casino to look for food there, but the line for the burgers that Scott loves was too long.  What to do?  We put Scott's coat around Abby again and went back to the hotel.  There is a Rainforest Cafe in the lobby.  We knew that the food would be expensive and not all that great, but it was something.  Abby liked that we sat right by a big fish tank with lots of clown fish like Nemo and a some blue tang like Dory.  She also liked the "thunderstorms" when the gorillas nearby started moving.  Some goofy kids nearby were saying that the gorillas kept looking at them and Abby started telling the story too.  Abby got some dinosaur chicken nuggets, but was upset when the "fresh fruit" that came with it was oranges instead of the apples shown on the menu.  We got some apple sauce instead.  She ate about half of her nuggets and apple sauce, but was clearly getting tired and was ready to lay down when we went back up to the room, though she still stubbornly was trying to wait up for Mommy to come back.

     Post script: On Saturday morning, it was quite an ordeal for Scott and Abby.  Julie went back to the conference at the convention center across the street.  Things started out ok for Scott and Abby when they spent almost an hour in the very warm pool water.  That made them very tired and possibly gave them both strep throat because they both were very sick the next few days.  That morning, Scott tried to pack the car with Abby, but thought he got locked out of the hotel room.  He and Abby went searching through the labyrinth of halls at the convention center for Julie but couldn't find her.  Scott eventually was able to get a new key card from the front desk, but then discovered that his original card was in his pocket the whole time, pressed up against the phone.  They went to the Niagara Falls Aquarium, which they had originally planned to do, but had to turn around again because this time, he hadn't left the card with o check out.  When Abby got into the aquarium, she was fighting hard to not fall asleep and she was running from exhibit to exhibit.  This is the third aquarium we had visited in about a month and it doesn't really compare to the other two.  It is really small, and Abby had completely circled both of its floors several times in a matter of minutes.  We were ready to look for lunch.  We left the Falls area to go to a McDonalds.  The only places to sit were some uncomfortable stools and Abby just wanted to close her eyes and cuddle.  After lunch we sat for about two hours in the hotel lobby waiting for Mom to return so we could go home.  We were exhausted.  But  Julie said she enjoyed her time at the conference and came away with a number of good ideas and a large amount of information, and that was really the point of the weekend anyway.